Do you want to be a blogger? Are you reading a lot of blogs about blogging? Of course, that seems to be an awesome strategy. There are millions of blogs based on blogging niche which claim to make you the next big name in the blogging industry. They cover everything about blogging – content writing, social media,SEO and so on. They have all the tools available for you – from perfect hosting deals to right theme for your blog. They are the best resource you can find over the internet if you want to learn blogging. Wrong!
As I always say, people learn from mistakes. When I thought of getting into blogging seriously, I subscribed to hundreds of popular blogs about blogging and read every single piece of advice they had on their blog. I literally considered them the expert gurus and followed their advice. I have been doing that since over a year (partly) but then luckily, I stumbled across Bloglovin and started following some good blogs related to anything but blogging.
That was when I realized what a folly I had done. I spent more than one year following blogs and people who can teach me nothing about what I want to do. I have four main blogs now – this a multi niche blog, A food blog, A fashion blog and a personal blog. I have had a good amount of experience in each of them and that’s why I can say that following blogs about blogging was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. Why?
- Passion means nothing to them: though there are some bloggers who would talk of passion but trust me! This hardly means anything to them. Most of them have been talking of blogging since they joined the blogosphere and they call it their passion. Now, you tell me, why anyone would want to start their first blog as a “blogging expert” who would give blogging advice, theme suggestions and so on. If your mind still didn’t resonate with the answer, it is money. Their passion was making money and making money can never be anyone’s passion. Yes, you might want to earn lots of money to let your passion grow but the other way never works. And the people who know nothing about passion, can never teach you how to blog like a pro. Never!
- They have expertise only in blogging niche: Now, people do learn with practice. When many of these started off while calling themselves “blogging experts”, they were actually amateurs. But over a period of time, they dedicated themselves to build an expertise and many of them got successful in that. But how can a blogger who has talked of nothing but blogging teach you about the importance of fashion photography for your fashion blog? Is it possible? Think of a blog in any niche except blogging. These “blogging experts” can never teach you anything about that. Can they?
- They think multi-niche blogging is stupid: We all know about this common thing bloggers ask you not to do. There is no trick they have figured out until now to boost a multi-niche blog and that gives rise to the common notion – multi-niche blogging is a big NO NO. Let me tell you, if you get out of the world of “blogging experts”, you would find millions of multi-niche blogs that are successful. In fact, these so called experts can’t even define what exactly a multi-niche blog is. Even their blogs talk of marketing, SEO, social media, content writing. But that would be a niche blog. But if MY blog talks of everything under lifestyle, it is a multi-niche. Why? Because I am not following the crowd and I’m not talking of blogging niche all the time?
- Most of them misguide you: So, there is this blogger friend on Facebook who keeps on sharing his monthly adsense earnings all the time (which is always above $1000). First thing, it is not allowed as per adsense policy. Second, one day I got really frustrated over this because each time he shared his earnings, I would go into an inferiority complex. So, I got myself to work and tried to figure out if he was really earning that much. Turns out, because of a minor link he left exposed in the picture he shared, I could figure out it wasn’t really his adsense accounts’s snapshot. Got the point? Till now, I have only seen the “blogging experts” claiming their monthly earnings. Successful bloggers don’t really do that. Most of them don’t even blog about blogging (not all the time).
- No one is better than you: This is actually my final piece of advice for anyone who is reading this. There is no better person than you. There is no marketing book that can teach you more about marketing than you. There is no person who can teach you blogging more than you. You need to follow your passion and follow what your heart says. Of course, a bit of advice is necessary but be careful about where you get this from. Instead of following the great “blogging experts”, follow the blogs of people who are actually blogging about what you want to blog about. So, if you want to create a photography blog, follow some photography blogs. If you want to create a personal blog, follow some personal blogs and so on. Get your advice from there. Those people are less likely to try and misguide you. Those people are the actual experienced ones. Those are the experts.
Remember, everything that glitters is not gold. Everyone who says he is an expert is not really an expert. It would obviously be difficult to get in contact of a real expert and ask him to help you but that effort would really pay off. Whenever a business starts working, there are a lot of frauds who get a chance to make it big as well. But a real business man is the one who can clearly see which are the frauds and which are the real successful businesses.
And I hope I have given you the fair warning and now, before trusting all “popular and successful” bloggers, you would try to figure out if they are really what they call themselves to be. Let me know what you think?
Hard true!! Even you can see that most of the great (really?) 🙂 blogger writes from someones blog. About 99 percent of their contents are similar to other blogging related blogs. They just re-write and claim as unique.
I’ve seen many bloggers starting their blogging articles with “How to write a good article?”. “How to be a pro-blogger?”, “How to increase Blog Traffic?” – even his/her blog does not have more than 100 or 200 daily visits (most of them from Facebook! 🙂 ).
Actually, about 7-8 years ago the Indians were not so much aware about the blogging. At that time many so called pro-bloggers impressed the newbies with their fake income reports and became famous.
I’ve seen many professional bloggers who left blogging after the fast panda update from Google. About 90% of those bloggers never appear after that time. This indicates that they were not anyhow pro-blogger. May be they got some success by copying someone’s idea – but they really are not worth for blogging.
The last line. Would you dare to change the font color of the comment box? – It is really distracting when typing into it. 🙂
Hello Tanmay,
The way pro-bloggers have started looking for other options is true indeed. There are just a few people who are flaunting their income reports these days. Either they know that readers have become wise enough not to believe them or they are just not earning that much. Some tricks do let you get great stuff but it is bound to lose its charm after a while. In the end, only quality rules.
And thanks for bringing the issue about comment box to my notice. I am planning to change the whole look of the site and would certainly consider your advice. 🙂
First of all reading a honest article. Second of all I was like you when I started by blog in 2011.But in 2014 I actually realised where i am doing mistake. I blog in my own way. Now i hardly read those fake blog or so called blog expert. Thanks for this awesome article.
Thank you Tanmoy. And I am glad that you have already learnt the lesson. Great 🙂
WAH WAH WAH!!
Loved the Thought, Loved the way it has been presented.
Keep Going Manpreet jee……. this is the Right Way-Your Way! 🙂
Thank you. 🙂
Finally I read something that every beginner should read who are in the awe of the experts. An honest post about the bozos who think they know it all.
Every second blogger is an expert commentator on “how to blog” in India.Very true Manpreet that these clueless care, but only money. Most of their posts are rehashed from other prominent western bloggers.They are into affiliate marketing, there is nothing wrong in it but when they present themselves as Experts it hurts
I will send this eye opening links to all whom I know are newbees and feel frustrated on seeing EXPERTS $$$ earning
Keep up the good work
Hello Apurva,
Seems like you have been through what I have been… that feeling of depression that comes when you work your ass off on your work and see someone not even working properly but accomplishing a lot more than you is really bad.
We shouldn’t even try to compare ourselves with such “pro bloggers”.
You mentioned there good points. I will agree with you about 4 points without one. This one is the first point. I think passion comes from people love and success activities, when you start blogging and then people will love to read your posts and give you good feedback.All the supports and love will give you to see a bright future life. I think for this reason, bloggers fell in love with blog and passion. I think this is a good post from you and i support your post. In my another opinion that Blogging niche is not a good thing to do blogging because you cannot much earning from this niche now. If you’re Google AdSense publisher you cannot get clicks from people because Your readers is blogger and they know by clicking ads, the admin of this blog will get pay. I Would like to suggest newbies blogger to stop blogging niche, go on another which simply people like to read and come to get benefit. Thank you for your good post Manpreet Kaur
You have a really good point. I deliberately don’t click on the ads displayed on different blogs 😛 This hype is bound to cool down. And I think working on blogs that you love is better… way better.
Hello Manpreet,
This post could’ve been a better post if it would have been thought from a different angle, from a different perspective with some sort of maturity in the field of blogging or web-mastering. I’m highly disagree to many of your points here.
1# You followed these so called blogging gurus for 1 yr; despite there are so many great bloggers to follow – who blog about web-mastering like persuasive content writing, digital marketing, social media marketing, SEO and how to upkeep & make your blog efficient.
First and foremost – how can you run a blog in a best possible way without knowing the art of content writing, about social media marketing, a bit of SEO and upkeeping of your CMS? It’s not the fault of the so called blogging experts, it is we to be blamed. And after reading all the good & bad blogs about ‘how to blog,’ gaining all the experience from them to blog better in your favorite niches; it’s not fair at all to blame them.
Think about a moment – the way you write today, isn’t it a reflection of your experience gained in the last 1 yr or 2 yrs by reading various content writing blogs? Take a simple example like – use of Hashtags (#) in social media marketing, grooving your article theme with the intent of your target audience (SEO) and various tips abour WordPress – aren’t these topics useful to you for running your blog in an effective way? Always remember – great and influential copywriting is always important for a blogger, no matter what ever his/her blogging niche is. So also SEO, marketing and knowledge about your CMS, right?
2# I think you’re not clear about the concept of niche and multi-niche blog/blogging properly. In the context of blogging: niche means – your blog posts or articles are meant to a specific group of people which help them to accomplish their job in a better way. Blogging (or how to blog) is an informal term which is synonymous with web-mastering is a single niche which covers all the topics to make a webmaster better and efficient. And it is targated to webmasters only, I mean bloggers as well as website owners. It’s a niche subject. Fashion is a sub-niche, Recipe is a sub-niche, photography is a sub-niche under lifestyle. Because each of the categories are intended for a specific segment of people to perform a specific task. OK.
So don’t get confused between niche & multi-niche blog.
3# About false earnings report: I really enjoy their acts. It’s like – they hang a fresh red carrot in front of us telling ‘catch it if you can.’ It’s like an oasis in Sahara. You can’t. Because it’s imaginary.
Let these poor guys market their blogs in their ways. In that wrong way. That is their way of marketing with their level of understanding. When we walk along the seashore, we collect seashells… both, good & bad. We keep the good ones and drop the bad without cursing. Isn’t it?
So, why to blame these poor guys? It is we to collect the gems and discard the unwanted while walking by the blogging-sea.
4# No one is better than you? Seriously, I was not expecting this statement from you.
When a person say like this – his/her learning curve ends then and there. In the field of blogging we’re always a student. That’s why I respect my icons. They are great people in their fields. They’ve years of experience. We should learn from them. Aspire to be like them.
We’re not always the best content writer in the world, not the best SEO in the world, not the best fashion/food blogger in the world. I hope you’re agree with me.
## :)Final & Important point: There is a saying that – “One foot can’t stand on two boats.” But how can a Manpreet with each of her feet and hands on different 4 boats sails so smoothly in blogosphere? Multi-tasking is good but there is a limit to it. My advice is concentrate your entire efforts on either one or two blogs only. This is my advice from my years of experience in blogging. I know you will be disagree with almost all my points: because YOU are the BEST.
Hello Akash,
Well, If you are really inclined on counting the number of years people blog for to be called ‘mature’ enough, I have been doing it since more than 8 years. Also, I consider my blog as a space where I share my writings and my friend, I picked up the pen at the age of 10. I have been writing since then… pouring my thoughts on the piece of paper and then going around to find ways through which I can challenge and refine those thoughts… So, when I talk of a subject, I analyze all angles. If you ever read my reviews, you would be greatly accustomed to that part of my personality (which you of course missed).
About following those so called gurus, I must say that if you really take out time to list down all the bloggers you called as ‘real gurus’, I would say 90% of them belong to the category I talked of.
Of course, we need advise on how to be a good content writer, how to do the SEO, how to get this CMS working, marketing and so on… but we seriously don’t need it from people who themselves have no idea about it. They just read it somewhere and without even verifying the facts, they rewrite and present ‘their’ tips to us! Is it the fault of readers that they’re doing that?
Well, I always looked upon google to serve me with some good blogs to fulfill my need of knowledge. And many of these bloggers do get to the top through their black hat tricks. How can you even consider the fact that a ‘cheater’ can teach anyone to blog better?
About MY writing, the way I write today came out of the experience I had while working as a freelance writer. I have written more than 400 articles between 2013-2014 and read some great blogs which were certainly not on blogging niche. LOL. I might offend you but blogs on blogging niche usually give me the experience of finding out grammatical mistakes. Nothing else!
Of course the knowledge of everything related to blogging is necessary and that’s why these blogs work. But no one wants to get that knowledge from a novice. Seriously!
About niche, it’s all about an individual’s perception. You think blog about blogging is a niche but a blog about lifestyle is a multi-niche? Well, if you don’t think like that, I would thank you to classify Finix Post as a niche blog. Or let me be more specific here – Finix Post is a single niche blog (LOL)
I really support your point about marketing through false earning reports. It is actually hilarious sometimes. But, Akash, these things are known to us… but there are many budding bloggers out there who face a huge setback because of this thing. They deserve to know the truth. They need to be shown the right way. Don’t they? Do you think we should just let them be and spend half of their blogging career trying to figure out what’s its like to earn your daily bread from blogging?
I highly disagree with your point about no one is better than you thing. See, this is the thing with quotes… they can have disastrous results if they’re taken the wrong way. But I strongly believe that when it comes to a thing like art (blogging is, I believe, an art), you need to believe in yourself and be confident enough! You can’t just keep telling yourself that XYZ blogger uses this marketing trick, so this is a good one. What you would think from your own head is definitely going to be better!
Hhahah… well, I did agree with one of your points. And about running different blogs at a time, of course, it has limitations. Finix Post would have been at some other place if I were able to give whole of my time to it. But it is all about priorities. I love doing ALL of it. So, I do it. The day I would feel ALL is not good… I would solely work on Finix Post. 🙂
Hi Manpreet,
No. I don’t have that much of experience in blogging and writing. I’ve barely 3 yrs of experience in blogging field. That also as a part time blogger and I write mostly about technical stuff like SEO and all. I’m a small time-blogger with very less fan following. Since last few months I’m hardly updating my blog as I’m busy in my new project as an entrepreneur in app world.
13 yrs back I started learning how to fire INSAS, LMG, MMG, Carbine, Pistol etc. so that we can protect our country from enemies. Saw lot of countries from Iran to…. Singapore to…. Mauritius… interacted with people out there. Learned a lot about them and their culture. At the same time devoting lots of time treating patients. You know, before 13 yrs I was running a free clinic for poor patients for 3 yrs in civil. I was distributing free medicines and food to them. In that way I’ve very less experience in the field of writing & blogging that you already have.
A BIG thank you for interpreting my whole comment considering the typos while explaining about niche & multi-niche thing, and may be some grammatical mistakes here and there. We technical bloggers are always back-banchers in the field of content writing. That’s why good writers don’t like our content. Who the hack I’m to classify FinixPost is a multi-niche Or single-niche? It depends on the owner how he/she perceives his/her blog is.
I think you know every thing in all the fields of life. No need to learn from veterans (seniors). Because YOU are the BEST writer with vast knowledge that nobody else has.
I’ve heard everything has a beginning and everything has an ending too. It started from a comment somewhere else and ending here today with a comment.
We all love to see you as a bright star in the blogosphere (Or may be in other fields) in near future. Take care…. and GOD Bless You 🙂
Thank you Akash. I consider it as my responsibility to read all comments carefully and answer because I think that part is more important than just writing a blog post. And I think you kinda underestimated yourself by saying technical bloggers are not good content writers. There are plenty of them out there with astonishing writing skills and original content. You just need to broaden up your perspective and look for them.
Thanks for having a great trust in me. I would surely do my best 🙂
Hey Manpreet
This is one of the great post and unique post i have ever read.
I am totally agree with your points that you listed in this post.
I read many blog posts about not to do Multi niche blogging but in actually there blog owners are creating multi niche blogs because they are experts.
I was also having one multi niche blog and that was removed by Google from search indexed because of some mistakes.
Multi Niche Blogs needs to be care a lot about everything but mainly about content.
Another thing i hate about blogs on blogging is “They all have same type of contents” and i am bored of them all but i would like to mentions Neil’s Quick Sprout this is only the best blog.
Thanks for sharing this unique post with us i really enjoyed it a lot.
Hey Gurpreet,
At last, someone noticed it. Most of the bloggers who say multi niche is bad are themselves doing multi-niche blogging. Those who aren’t are just trying to stay away from a challenge. Peace!
Yes, content of a multi-niche blog has to be planned carefully. You need to keep a balance. You can’t just write whatever you want to, whenever you want.
I have been a loyal follower of Neil’s blogs.They do have genuine and workable advice.
I am glad you enjoyed reading the post. Thanks for visiting FinixPost
To improve my blogging performance i always use my own experience because there is no guarantee that ethics of other bloggers will give me benefits in blogging. I always do research first and apply my created ideas.
Now this one is really helpful to me . Actually some people ( blogging experts ) shows me AdSense screenshots and show off 🙁 . and everytime i though i am earning nothing comparing to themselves .
Hello Balwinder,
The biggest reason behind writing this post was telling everyone that it’s fine if you’re not earning hundreds of dollars from your blog! It’s not supposed to be like that in the beginning. Just keep working! Good luck 🙂
Hi Manpreet, I have a very new blog which is just 8 months old and after reading your post today, I am confused about multi-niche blog. Harsh has been totally disagreed with the concept of multi-niche blogging but I always felt like I should take 2 of my interests to a single site but was confusion.
Not quite sure but i will probably continue with my multi-niche blog after reading your post today.
Also, I will be very thankful if you check my website and help me with the mistakes I am committing.
Thank you.
hahah it happens!
I really like this post, especially about the money part. It is a game that people jump into without much knowledge because one does sail on unchartered territory. So idea is to observe and be steady on your feet.